Be part of the LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE at George Washington University's Jack Morton Auditorium on April 16 at 6:30pm eastern. The program will be broadcast live to colleges nationwide beginning at 7pm.
Kick-off Earth Day with this special event!
* Meet award-winning students and staff who are creating solutions to global warming * Be part of the conversation with the experts and join in the panel discussion * Laugh and be inspired by student-made videos
Chill Out will include special appearances from Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm and more!
To reserve your FREE seat at the live Chill Out broadcast at George Washington University contact Kristy Jones.
I was all set to do a post railing against Harris Teeter for carrying a dizzying array of organic food without carrying a single organic option of one of The Green Miles' favorite foods -- ice cream.
Then I was shopping tonight and for the first time saw this:
Not only did they have four different varieties of organic ice cream, but it was very competitively priced -- a quart for $4.99.
I thought about getting some for a taste-test, but I'm actually willing to give it The Green Miles Seal of Approval without one. If I'm dropping $4 for a pint of Ben & Jerry's or Haagen-Dazs, I expect it to be excellent. But when it comes to the Big Three flavors (vanilla/chocolate/strawberry), I'm probably just looking for something to a la mode an apple pie. Volume does the trick just fine, and $5 for a quart compares well to Edys, store brands, etc.
My new favorite breakfast is Stonyfield Chocolate Underground fat-free yogurt with BearNaked peanut butter granola. It's like a Reese's peanut butter cup, if Reese's was run by damn dirty hippies.
Recently I noticed Stonyfield's label had switched from "natural" to "organic." What's the difference? More than you might think.
Basically, natural just means the product was made with no artificial ingredients. Organic means the product was made without the use of chemical pesticides, fertilizers or antibiotics and no genetically modified organisms. It's especially complicated when dealing with dairy products, because grazing land and feed cannot be treated with chemical fertilizers or persistent toxic pesticides for a period of three years.
For Stonyfield, it was no accident that their suppliers were able to meet the stringent organic requirements:
Stonyfield Farm and Organic Valley/CROPP have worked together in recent years to further encourage organic conversion. In addition to establishing a transition fund to provide monetary support for farmers during the conversion process and providing more staff to work directly with farmers, the companies scheduled hundreds of procurement and membership retention events, and sponsored organic workshops and conferences for farmers. Stonyfield CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg and his wife, Meg, also contributed $100,000 to a loan fund to supply needed support to organic farm families, and Stonyfield Farm was the lead sponsor, with a gift of $450,000, of the nation's first land grant-based organic dairy farm, at the University of New Hampshire.
Packaging with confusing claims can make it difficult to tell what's really organic. You can easily tell what's organic and what's not by looking for the USDA's organic seal. The USDA's website has an extensive rundown of the procedures for a product's organic certification. Wikipedia also has a thorough explanation of organic practices and benefits.
Here's an event coming up Wednesday night on the GWU campus:
